


A peak behind the façade

by MoonshineMadame



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 21:03:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16751488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonshineMadame/pseuds/MoonshineMadame
Summary: That Mrs Wardwell is not Mary Wardwell at all, well, it didn't take Zelda long to figure that out. But it leaves one very good question: Who is she?





	A peak behind the façade

**Author's Note:**

> This somehow took a life of it's own about halfway through and I'm not entirely sure what to think of the outcome...but I hope you'll like ut anyway :)
> 
> Disclaimer:  
> The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina do not belong to me. 

‘You can drop the act now.’

‘Excuse me?’

Mary Wardwell turned around to give Zelda an incredulous look. They were standing in the corridor in front of the principal’s office at Baxter High, just finishing their meeting with the woman. Despite Principal Hawthorne’s disappearance a week ago it hadn’t gone unnoticed that Sabrina had not been at school for several days. Of course, with all that was going on, no one in the Spellman household had thought of such a trivial thing as calling the school – or, in Sabrina’s case, had just assumed that Miss Wardwell would take care of it.

Much to Zelda’s chagrin the woman seemed rather incapable of doing anything properly, considering that Mrs Glover had called the mortuary this morning and demanded to see one of Sabrina’s aunts with an explanation for her absence.

And that was how she had ended up spending the past two hours in the vice principal’s office at Baxter high to explain why Sabrina had suddenly left the school – at least Mrs Wardwell had simply gone along with the story Zelda spun and in the end, Mrs Glover had let the two of them go, if rather begrudgingly.

Right now, they stood in the empty hallways of the school long after the last lessons were over and Zelda rolled her eyes at the other woman.

‘It’s just you and me now, so you can stop the pretence.’

Mrs Wardwell frowned and tilted her head.

‘I’m sorry to say that I have no idea what you are talking about.’ She gave Zelda one of her too sweet smiles and Zelda couldn’t help but roll her eyes again. Really, this _woman_ was infuriating!

‘I know a witch when I see one. Mary Wardwell wasn’t one and neither are you. Which leaves the question: What demon are you?’

While she was talking, Zelda had stepped towards Mrs Wardwell and was now standing right in front of her. The woman in question, however, was for once speechless. Never before had anyone been able to seen through her like that. Zelda herself though wasn’t finished yet and had begun to slowly circle her.

‘You are not possessing Mary Wardwell, oppressing her soul would be too much effort on the long run if you need to be in such impeccable control. But possessing a dead body is something only the most powerful of demons are capable of, so that leaves only very few options. And even less of them would prefer a female body…are you going to tell me who you are or do I have to keep guessing?’

She was standing in front of her again and the look in her blue eyes was impossible to read.

‘I’m waiting.’

It was ironic, really, that for perhaps the first time in her life, Lilith, mother of demons, didn’t know what to do. She had, of course, known that Zelda Spellman was a powerful witch but this particular gift was extremely rare – naturally, considering her luck sometimes, Zelda just had to be the one in a generation who had it. Though she hated to admit it, it startled her – this had never happened before. Not once during all those times she was staying with various covens.

‘How long have you known?’ she asked instead of answering the question. Zelda shrugged nonchalantly.

‘Since that day you were wandering through the house, when Sabrina was at the academy.’

‘But you didn’t say anything.’

‘I have met Mary Wardwell several times before, she was a common mortal. And we don’t usually meddle with mortal affairs.’ Well, she had to admit that Zelda did have a point there.

‘What about the exorcism? You could have blown my cover,’ she smirked but Zelda seemed unimpressed.

‘You wanted Sabrina to sign the book, I wanted her to sign the book – as long as we had a common interest, I didn’t see a point in that. Now however…’

‘Now you want to know who I am and what I want.’

‘Indeed. Are you going to tell me? Or do I have to find out myself?’

Now it was Lilith turn to look smug.

‘Let me hear your guesses,’ she asked and opened the door to her office. Neither of them said anything while they that down, Lilith behind the desk and Zelda on the chair Sabrina used to occupy. As soon as they were both seated, the witch leaned back and gave her a once-over look.

‘Well?’

‘Oh, there aren’t that many options and I really don’t like guessing. But I will, just this once…’

‘Go on. Who do you think I could be?’

‘Istar…Coatlicue…or Lilith.’

Somehow Zelda managed to say that last name differently from the rest, as if she believed it to be…more likely? Less likely? Lilith couldn’t say but she didn’t have time to think about it because the witch in front of her looked like the cat who got the cream.

‘Now why does the dark Lord take so much interest in our Sabrina that he sends his personal assistant to make sure she signs the book?’

‘Perhaps she is just a very special witch?’ Lilith had no idea what had given her away– this really was a first. But she could think about that later, right now she decided to turn her focus back to their conversation. No matter how little she did like it, at the moment it seemed like Zelda had the upper hand– something Lilith was entirely unused to.

‘How did I not think of that?’ Zelda said and made no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice. ‘What I want to know, Lilith, is _why_ she is so special to him. He sent you to make sure she signs the book and I am fairly certain that there is a greater reason for that.’

‘She had to sign because her name was already I the book…if she had just been a half-witch, it wouldn’t have mattered but since her mortal mother took her to the catholic church…’

‘There were two deities trying to claim her soul.’ They sat in silence for a moment, contemplating the conversation (Zelda) and the situation (Lilith). In the end, it was Zelda who spoke again first.

‘I will most certainly not try to give you any orders but I will ask you just this once: Whatever your plans are in terms of Sabrina, she is first and foremost my niece so if any sign of trouble arises, you should come to me before trying to meddle again. And stay away from the rest of my family.’

With that, Zelda got up and grabbed her coat in an attempt to leave. Lilith was uncharacteristically quite as she watched her close the buttons.

‘I think,’ she finally started, ‘that that would be agreeable. Though perhaps we should … stay in touch. I am not entirely sure what exactly he is playing at but out dear father Blackwood is planning something.’

Zelda snorted.

‘He most certainly is and believe me, I’m doing everything I can to find out what it is.’

Lilith fixed her eyes on Zelda’s, somewhat surprised by the sudden defiance in her tone. Well, that was an interesting reaction to that man. She gave Zelda a small smile, perhaps the first real one since she took over Mary Wardwell’s body.

‘I’ll let you know if I find out anything – if you do the same.’

‘I suppose I can do that,’ the witch agreed somewhat reluctantly and Lilith had to bite back the smirk about this little victory. Her master might not be the biggest fan of the Spellman’s right now but Zelda had always been the most devout of them which should put her in his good graces – if you could say that, considering you were talking about the devil. To her, none of that really mattered – what was important to her was something entirely different.

Lilith herself might be the mother of all demons and a demon herself but once, a long, long time ago, she had been a woman too. She was the very first feminist and that she wanted woman to rise to power wasn’t changed by the fact that she wasn’t all woman anymore or consorted with the devil.

Zelda Spellman was one of the most powerful witches she had ever encountered and – apart from Sabrina, of course, who overshadowed everyone – perhaps the most powerful alive, certainly the strongest in her coven though. And she hid it well but Lilith knew that she only did so because it was what she had been taught to do, what she did to keep herself safe.

And that was a pity, it really was. So was it wrong if they could both benefit from this agreement? She turned around again to look at Zelda who just seemed to be waiting for her to say something that would be a dismissal so she could leave. Well, she had to disappoint her, then.

‘It would seem that we have a…similar agenda when it comes to Faustus Blackwood,’ she started and Zelda’s eyebrows shot up.

‘Do we?’ she asked. Lilith nodded.

‘I think we do, Miss Spellman. Don’t you agree that it would be much more beneficial for everyone if he was…disposed of, so to speak? Wouldn’t it make the day-to-day matters of the coven so much easier if there was someone more…capable…in charge?’

‘Oh, I’m sure it would be, yes. But as long as Faustus is in charge, we know what we are dealing with, which we wouldn’t know if we had him replaced. Though I dare say that none of his successors are even remotely adequate enough to take up his position.’

‘Why replace him with a man? I imagine you would do quite well as the head of the academy.’

‘Excuse me?!’ Just for a moment, Zelda’s composure had slipped but even though she caught herself remarkably quickly, she wasn’t sure what to make of such a proposition.

‘Well, you would do nicely, don’t you think?’

‘I have absolutely no intention of putting myself on Faustus chair, so no, I don’t think I would do nicely. Though if you have any serious suggestions on who could make a suitable candidate, I don’t see why we shouldn’t work together to make that happen.’

Now Lilith smirked at Zelda and motioned for the witch to sit down again. Of course she huffed but unbuttoned her coat again before placing it over the back of the chair. Lilith made herself comfortable on her own seat and then the two woman started to plot.

Neither of them had expected that a mere parent-teacher-conference would turn out like this but once they realised that even past Sabrina signing the book their ambitions were rather similar, well, it wasn’t too difficult to decide that they would be much more efficient and likely to succeed if they simply worked together.

‘We are no men, after all,’ Lilith had stated and Zelda had, of course, agreed.

‘We are most certainly not. If we were, we would have already ripped each other’s throats out by now instead of having a conversation like sensible people.’

Now, it was hard to predict what would really come of this unusual alliance but if Lilith had her way, then Zelda would be head of the coven sooner rather than later. Oh, she had, for a moment, considered other options, as Zelda had put it, but no one else was quite as qualified as she was. Except herself but as much as she would enjoy that, it just wouldn’t do. She had other responsibilities that were too important to leave behind, so Zelda would be the perfect candidate.

Well, she would be once Lilith managed to convince her of that. But for now, that wasn’t important. What mattered now was that they were putting together a slow, cunning plan that would dethrone Faustus Blackwood without him even knowing until it was already done.

Planning together was surprisingly easy, their minds just seemed to click and match, and by the time Zelda finally left the office hours later, they were almost good to go.

Yes, they would need to talk about some details, some more people needed to get involved and they would have to make several alternations along the way but there was no way that they would fail completely.

When Hilda asked her what was going on during supper, all through which Zelda had a slightly unsettling smile on her lips, she had just smiled.

‘Change is coming, Hilda. We should all brace ourselves so we might not be left behind.’

After those mysterious words, a baffled Hilda was left behind in the kitchen while Zelda went upstairs to take care of the baby.

No, she thought, her life was far from perfect. But perhaps Lilith was right; perhaps she should take it up to herself to make sure that things got better. Yes, that she could do. She wasn’t alone, after all. She had her family, the baby and as of today, it seemed like she also had a friend.

It wasn’t what she had expected when she left the house this morning, not at all.

But sometimes you just had to take the opportunity when it presented itself.

And this time, she had.

 


End file.
